Belal Muhammad says an interim title fight
at
#UFC310 doesn’t make sense, but doesn’t mind it:“Interim title bro? It’s 6 weeks, not 6 months that I’m off.”
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— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS)
November 2, 2024
Belal
Muhammad believes an interim title fight doesn’t make sense in
his absence.
Muhammad was scheduled to defend his welterweight strap against
Shavkat
Rakhmonov at UFC 310
on Dec. 7 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. However, “Remember
the Name” was forced out of the event due to an
infection in his foot that caused severe swelling in one of his
toes.
Rakhmonov has since been looking for a replacement opponent for a
potential interim title fight at UFC 310. While Ian Garry had
been calling out Rakhmonov, the Irishman was recently booked
against Joaquin
Buckley for a headlining bout at UFC
Tampa on Dec. 14. That leaves former champ Kamaru
Usman as the most likely replacement for Muhammad against
“Nomad.” Muhammad believes his absence won’t be long enough to
warrant an interim title fight. Regardless, the champ claims to be
unbothered about an interim title aside from knowing who he’ll
fight next.
“[Shavkat’s] calling for an interim title fight. And it’s like,
‘Interim title fight? Bro it’s six weeks, not six months that I’m
off.’ But even for myself, they want to just do that just to make
it a main event,” Muhammad said on his “Remember the Show” podcast.
“I mean I don’t really care about it if they want to make an
interim title fight regardless. Because they know who has the real
belt. For me, I know who next opponent’s gonna be. If it ends up
being him and the only person that really makes sense right now
would be Kamaru, since Buckley and Garry are out. And you said I
think JDM’s [Jack
Della Maddalena] injured… Him and Usman are training partners…
it’s just weird.”
Muhammad is undefeated in 11
UFC outings since 2019, topped off by a dominant unanimous
decision title win over Leon
Edwards at UFC 304
this past July. Meanwhile, Kazakhstan’s Rakhmonov has finished all
18 of his career wins so far, which includes six in the UFC.